Courage – How to Get It.

Many people struggle with having the self-confidence to believe in themselves or to chase their dreams. Truthfully though what they lack is courage.

The courage to have a go.
The courage to risk looking silly if they fail.
The courage to say ‘I think I’m good enough.’
The courage to be talked about or even ridiculed by others.

So how do you get the courage to forget what others think and to be the best version of yourself?

There’s an old saying that:

You can’t test courage cautiously.

What does that mean? Courage is like a muscle. In order for a muscle to get stronger you have to put it under pressure. You have to challenge it to grow by using heavier weights, putting it under stresses it hasn’t previously been exposed to or give it new movements to process and workout. Courage is no different.

When you challenge yourself to do something that scares the hell out of you, and you follow through and do it despite the fear, you become stronger mentally and emotionally. Your courage grows because you exposed yourself to something that made you grow. But you can’t do this cautiously. You can’t dip your toe in the water and see if you like this uncomfortable feeling of being scared. As soon as you do, you’ve mentally already given yourself an out.

Courage grows as you do what needs to be done in the face of fear or being uncomfortable.

Here’s a video I did that relates to this:

So the question is, how are you going to challenge yourself? What scares you that you also know would help you grow if you faced it? Make a list and then go do it. You may not get it right and you most certainly won’t get it perfect, but you will start the process of improvement and that’s a lot more important than perfection.